The Most Beautiful Game I Have Ever Played: Pillars of Eternity

Short Summary: real-time sword and sorcery RPG.  Breath-taking graphics.  Good mix of combat details while not getting bogged down in too many details.  Interface generally very, very similar to Baldur's Gate.  Companions are extremely well done, although their number is limited.  Lots of different monsters and side quests (Hooray for side quests!).  Avoids the "chosen/prophesied one" trope (how I despise the "chosen/prophesied one" trope!) and black-and-white thinking.  Brings up some interesting metaphysical questions and gut-wrenching practical questions with no good answers.  Roughly 60% fighting and 40% exploration, diplomacy, or problem solving.  (You can turn every situation into a fight, though, if you prefer straight blood and guts.)  Highly recommend.

Longer Opinions:

Fear of Things That Look Like Spiders

Improbably large spiders make good computer game monsters.  They're not at the top of the list of horrifying monsters I've seen (star-nosed moles probably get that honor), but they've definitely made me yelp coming on them unexpectedly during gaming (to the great disgust of any cat sitting on my lap at the time).  I've started collecting examples of virtual spider-type monsters:

Do I Really Have To Find The Conveniently Lying Around Puzzle Hint?: Basic Combinatorics and Computer Games

Screen text: I don't know the right combination, and trying to find it will take too long.

Situation 1: combination lock.  3 buttons (levers? thingamajigs?) , each button has 5 sides.  Without any further information to rule out possible combinations, I have 5 choices for the first button, 5 choices for the second button, and 5 choices for the third button, for 5*5*5 = 125 total possibilities to try for a brute force test-everything solution.  Assume I need 2 seconds to set each button to a possibility.  Then the maximum time I need to test a combination is 6 seconds (less for combinations where I need to change only one or two slots).  6 seconds * 125 tries = 750 seconds or 12.5 minutes.  Assume I stop for a break and to make notes to keep track of my attempts.  I can still reasonably force the lock in under 30 minutes.  Even in a real-time game, unless you are in a down-to-the-minute crunch, this is doable.  Tedious (very tedious!), but straightforward.  I don't truly need someone's conveniently left out password here. 

How about this one?

Screen text: I can't figure this out without a plan.

Situation 2: A clearly magical harp sitting in a swamp (if it weren't magical, we would have serious water damage to this poor instrument).  We do have a limited number of pitches: 17, one for each colored segment.  (My mouse pointer is covering up one such segment). If we assume the magical melody is

• exactly 17 notes long, no repeats, we have 17 choices for the first note, then 16 choices for the second note, 15 choices for the third note, etc., for 17*16*15*14*...*3*2*1 = 17! = 355687428096000 combinations.  Way too many to test without a computer!  (Read the "!" as "factorial" in this context.)
• exactly 17 notes long, repeats allowed, we have  17*17*17*...*17 = 17^17 = 827240261886336764177 possible choices.  Way too many to test!  (With a computer?  I'm not sure.  Let me do some more research.)
• Less than or more than 17 notes? Less than, and you could probably still force it with a computer eventually.  Small enough and you could do it by hand.  More than 17?  Well, how much more?  At some point you can always make the problem too big.  Even the integers are infinite.  (And the real numbers are infinitely more infinite than the integers.  In a mathematically well-defined and amazingly mind-blowing way.)
• If timing and tempo matter?  Forget it.  

I do need a conveniently lying around hint for this one, even with an untimed game.

Edit: turned out situation 2 was just about tuning the strings, rather than a combination.  Since tuning is an aesthetic choice (individual or cultural), yes, I did need a guide. 

"The Veal Holds No Uncertainty For Her, and She Shall Know No Fear of Death, For the Maker Shall Be Her Bacon and Her Shield": Dragon Age Origins Review and Opinions

Short Summary:

 Sword and sorcery real-time RPG.  Both swords and sorceries kick butt:

The column of flame is the inferno spell.  Love it.  Never sets fire to the landscape, either.

Prepare to die, darkspawn!

Good 3D graphics, comes with widescreen option, wide range of possible camera angles.  Lots of cutscenes.  Most dialog is both voiced and animated, both of high quality (even the few cheesy lines are done with sufficient conviction and sincerity to carry the day).  Approximately 85% fighting and 15% diplomacy, puzzles, or exploration.  World is not very extensive or open, but what there is is well-done.  Straightforward yet well-written against-all-odds fantasy adventure with a few twists that I did not anticipate.  Includes a few romance options.  Moderate learning curve given prior experience with Baldur's Gate or similar games.  I enjoyed it very, very much.               

Longer Opinions:

"In Death, Sacrifice"

"Join us, brothers and sisters. Join us in the shadows where we stand vigilant. Join us as we carry out the duty that cannot be forsworn. And should you perish, know that your sacrifice will not be forgotten. And that one day, we shall join you."
                                                                          -Grey Warden oath

Despite my title, Dragon Age Origins is neither a happy nor a happily-ever-after fantasy.

Computer Game Graphics: Then and Now

The first computer game I ever played:

Digger.  Screenshot from the web.  Still playable with DOSBox or online.

Except I played on a laptop with display tones all in blue/purple/gold, so it didn't look quite like the above.

The computer game I'm currently playing:

Dragon Age Origins. Gorgeous.

Living in the future is amazing!

Poetry Tuesday

An HULK-KU* for Dragon Age Origins, The Sloth Demon's Dream adventure arc:

Locked door, can't pick, drat

HULK SMASH!  Door open good now.

Monsters ahead!  Charge!

Smashing the doors was really fun.  Even though technically I'm a stone golem, not Hulk.

*scroll down for the hulk-ku

Enthusiastic Consent for Everyone, Jade Empire Style

The computer game Jade Empire has several possible romance paths.  Having played two so far, I want to note that

• A hetero romance video sequence for the deciding-we-like-and-trust-each-other-enough-for-fun-sexytimes*-and-heck-we-may-all-die-in-battle-tomorrow moment finishes with a kiss: the theatrically classic, one-person-bent-over backwards-kiss:
  

• But a lesbian romance fades to black before we actually get to the kiss.  So, good for the programmers to include this romance option, but...what happened?  Threatened by our freedom-to think-as-they-think-loving American censors, or just not brave enough to keep going?  

I am happy to report that the good people of the internet have totally got this one, and there is a fix: http://www.nexusmods.com/jadeempire/mods/4/?

I am sad that policing number and gender of persons involved is still more important socially than enthusiastic consent by all involved, birth control, disease protection, bodily autonomy, trust, or respect.


*Link goes to Scarleteen, an inclusive and comprehensive sex education site.  Possibly not safe for work.    

"I Am A Hero, and I Am A Librarian!": Baldur's Gate Finch NPC Remarks and Hints

Finch Bloomwhiffler  is a neutral good gnome cleric of Deneir for Baldur's Gate 1:

She wears glasses!  (Yes!!!  I am so tired of the "take off your glasses to be a true hero" trope!  Glasses rock!  Also good for identifying items.)   Finch also carries a bookbag for scrolls and tomes, and, while she has never had an adventure outside of a book before you meet, will conduct herself admirably in your roving up and down the Sword Coast.

If you love Imoen, Aerie, or Alora, I highly recommend Finch.  Her spell set is comparable to Aerie's cleric spells, and her fighting skills are not shabby for a cleric, although not suitable for charging into the center of a battle.  Her dialog is well voiced, she has interactions with other NPCs, and she has one quest for any book-loving player.    

She is a hero, and she is a librarian!  Find her mod here.


I needed a hint for the last part of Finch's quest, and found it remarkably difficult to dig up any on the internet.  So I'm writing mine here for future players.  Spoilers below:

Butt-Kicking for Goodness*: Sword Coast Stratagems and Hard Times Mods for Baldur's Gate I

Baldur's Gate is a long-running classic of sword and sorcery real-time RPGs.  The story arcs are long and well-developed, there are a boatload of optional quests, battles, and interactions, the world is massive (and massively interconnected, in ways I would have never, ever guessed without browsing walkthroughs, spoiler alert for link), and the extent of player choice in how and what to do in the game is impressive, making Baldur's Gate something that I come back to over and over, playing with different characters and parties and choices.

About three or four years ago I discovered mods for Baldur's Gate, but was very timorous about installing them.  But I tried a few NPC (non-player character) mods on an install of Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn, and really, really, liked them.  Then that hard drive died the death, and I found some other great games, and left Baldur's Gate alone for a long time.

Recently I decided I would like to play through the whole Baldur's Gate trilogy, with as many mods installed as I thought looked interesting and wouldn't break each other or the game.

I'm currently in the middle of Baldur's Gate I + Tales of the Sword Coast (details on what I'm running below), and I wanted to salute the Sword Coast Stratagems Mod and the Hard Times Mod. 

Overview of the Mods:
     Sword Coast Stratagems: this mod is a large collection of smaller tweaks for combat and spellcasting, plus a complete overhaul of the combat AI to make opponents smarter, fairer, and more interesting.  By no means the only tactical mod available.  Can be installed entire, or choose Y/N on installing each component.

     Hard Times: I read the description and said I had to have this one.  The Sword Coast is supposed to be having an iron crisis when Baldur's Gate I starts.  Yet none of the original game reflects this: weapons are cheap and have a low breakage rate; opponents drop lots and lots of loot, much of it magical, inn prices are dirt cheap, etc.  The Hard Times mod makes the Sword Coast economy much more like the storyline, making you work much harder at the start of a game.  Also adds a boss-type encounter in the Ulcaster ruins.

As always, for more questions read the readme. 

What I like, based on a partially completed game:

Most of my shameless exploitation of the original combat AI's weaknesses no longer work.  The single biggest one: with Sword Coast Stratagems it is almost impossible to lure one or two enemies out of the fog of war without activating the rest.  Result: with Sword Coast Stratagems you get to fight the entire bandit camp at once, including the leaders from inside the main lodge.  The amount of time I just spent figuring out how to survive this inspired me to give this mod a shout-out.

Screen text: "Sound the alarm!"

This is about 2/3 of the opponents who show up for the bandit camp fight.  One is a wizard, about nine have specialty arrows (poison, ice), and one has excellent armor and potions.  Not my actual winning combat distribution or tactics, just getting a screenshot. 

This feature is well-programmed and not indiscriminate: in places like Larswood, where you would not expect different groups of opponents to be within call of each other or working together, you only get the opponents in each group, unless you run into more while trying to run away.


Second biggest feature: enemy spellcasters are smart.  They use their spells almost as well as you do.  While looking for Shandalar's cloak, I cast protection from magic on one party member and sent her out to duel with some cranky mages.  The mages cast one or two standard offensive spells like magic missiles and such, and when these didn't work, cast monster summonings and/or ran away/went after other party members.   

Third, wolves and wild dogs no longer attack on sight.  Like bears, if you leave them alone, they'll return the favor.  Carrion crawlers are supposed to be a little harder, according to the readme, but I found them to still be nice pushovers to arrows from a distance.

The original Baldur's Gate I has so many short swords +1 you end up selling them at a discount.  No more of that, with the Hard Times mod!  In fact, I have so far found only two magic swords, one fine quality dagger, and one fine quality halberd. Storekeepers don't pay any more for loot, but their prices are much higher, and most stores no longer stock all the nice magical weapons and potions that used to proliferate.  This really affects my current game as I'm playing a mage-heavy party and most spell scrolls for level 3 and up are only showing up as boss loot.  I can't wait to open up the city area of Baldur's Gate and go shopping in Sorcerous Sundries!  


What I don't like: *crickets*


Glitches: Very occasionally opponents will stop responding and just stand there, or do something self destructive.  Mulahey in the Nashkel mines just stood there, and one of the two modded Ulcaster bosses self-destructed casting fireballs close range at the skeleton I'd sent in to feel him out.  There have been two or three other random low-level creatures that seem to get "stuck".  I don't know if this is from a mod, or from mods interacting, or just randomness.  Hasn't happened enough to bother me.

Game will crash more than rarely, but not often.  (I will try to start paying attention so as to have actual data.)  Opens fine when I restart it.  Doesn't require a computer restart, although remembering to do a restart when things start getting laggy, or about once a week anyway, seems to help.  

As always, save, save often, and keep copies of your save files in a different location in case they get corrupted.


What I'm Running:
Windows 7 Professional, 64 bit, not allowed to update anything without my specific permission
Nvidia graphics card, whatever drivers came with the card (I will update when there's a problem, not before)
Baldur's Gate I + Tales of the Sword Coast
Baldur's Gate II Shadows of Amn + Throne of Bhaal + Official BGII Throne of Bhaal patch
   I had to install the original games in safe mode.  Once they were installed I could just tell my firewall to shut up about the mod installs.
Baldur's Gate EasyTuTu: this is a platform to use all the great things about BGII in BGI, nicely packaged with all needed components and an installer.  I highly recommend it.  I had to set this to run in administrator mode to get the game to actually play.  
Widescreen Mod
Baldur's Gate I Unfinished Business
Gibberlings NPC Project: this mod is the reason I learned about EasyTutu and mods to start with.  It is a must if you love NPC interactions and dialog.
Sword Coast Stratagems
Hard Times
Sirine's Call
Gray Clan
Finch NPC
Indira NPC
Xan BG1 Friendship


Happy gaming! 

*with apologies to those who play neutral or evil alignments

New Computer Game: Jade Empire!

Three words: graphics, combat, storyline!

 Graphics: 

This is in a demon-sickened forest, with appropriately somber veils of mist, waterfalls, trees, and flowers.  Below is a tiny corner of the Celestial Realm where the spirit guardian of the above forest lives.  I think the mushrooms are a manifestation of the toad-like demon in the wood who is trying to muscle in, but it could just be that heaven is full of giant mushrooms.  You never know. 

My perennial demand that my games be beautiful is more than fulfilled here.  In fact, I'm drooling over the quality of the scenery and the animation, and if I'm not expecting a fight I'll slow my character to a walk and gawk at the scenery as we move around. 

Combat:

A new style of combat for me to learn.  Rather than me controlling everyone in my party's tactics and strategy and strike/block/dodge being all handled by the computerized dice rolling, I have to worry about my own style/attack/block/dodge/run/move-move-MOVE!  I'm much better at dodging than I am at blocking, and I'm still adjusting the control sensitivity.  Also, large melee combat starts to get a bit laggy as my processor struggles to keep up.  My followers do their thing without my input (and I can only have one follower helping out at a time.  Sadness.)  Dawn Star (in pink in the heaven screenshot) is bad-ass with a Chinese-style broadsword.  I use primarily staff or metal claws, but I'm also studying several magical combat styles.  Also I died a lot in the first chapters of the storyline.  The black hooded things that look like No-Face gone beserk (middle-left side of above screenshot, and watch Spirited Away for No-Face) are the worst.  They fire some kind of magic seeker-weapon that can curve and follow you when you try to dodge.   

Storyline:

We're in a romanticized version of ancient China, with magic and spirits and restless ghosts and assassins and primitive rockets and flying machines.  Above is my little gang of outcasts and adventurers.  The guy at the back right with the hat is Kang the mad.  He lets me do the kicking, likes explosions, and gets ticked off if I scratch the paint on his precious Dragonfly flyer while dodging nasties.  The small child is Wild Flower, the spirit anchor for a large guardian demon who is allied to my Destiny (and yes, it is indeed Destiny with a capital D).  Dawn Star is my childhood companion with a Mysterious Past, which said past seems to be related to the pessimistic ex-assassin Sagacious Zu, who is standing next to Sky.  I met Sky while taking down a pirate stronghold: he was out for vengence on the pirates, and asked to join me after we kicked some pirate butt.  He likes to talk and has an eye for the ladies, Dawn Star in particular.  The burly giant and the skinny cook are recent additions.  Burly is a brawling, drunken mercenary who likes to fight, preferably while drunk.  The cook keeps burly supplied with wine.  I would actually have preferred to send them away, but it seems your core cast of characters is not as variable as in Baldur's Gate.  But hey, I don't ever have to take them along for a fight, and they are funny.      

Not visible around our campfire is a celestial bureaucrat, Zin Bu the Magic Abacus, who's in a snit because he got demoted because he couldn't keep up with  tracking my exploits (so my position on the Celestial Wheel can be properly judged.  This takes mountains of forms, in triplicate.  Heaven has a fearsome bureaucracy.)  He's now my personal buyer/seller and is hoping to get promoted again.

Most of the plot is classic adventure fantasy, done with excellent dialog and satisfying side quests.  My favorite so far was the two ghosts of drowned children who are lost and frightened and lonely and angry, and my character was able to give them peace.  We've also saved the village Dawn Star and I grew up in from pirates and then lost it to assassins, crashed a stolen flyer, saved a teahouse for its rightful owner, arranged a marriage, cleared the demons out of the forest and acquired the map we need to head for Imperial City.  Onward!      

Butt-kicking Misogyny: Surely Female PCs in Baldur's Gate Will Only Want to Romance a Paladin-Want-to-Be!

The first step of character creation for all the Baldur's Gate series of computer games:

"Females of the Realms can excel in any area they wish, and are easily the equals of their male counterparts in every skill or respect."

In many respects, Black Isle programmers lived up to this promise.  I always play a female character, and I have greatly enjoyed every Baldur's Gate game I have finished.  

But even in nearly perfect computer games there are bugs, both accidental and deliberate.  Male PCs in Baldur's Gate 2: Throne of Bhaal original programming (as opposed to add-in mods programmed by fans, of which I am a huge proponent) have three possible romance storylines in the game.  Female PCs have one.  Male PCs, depending on their choices, may romance a dark elf, a fighter/druid, or even impregnate a cleric/mage NPC.  Female PCs may romance the fighter/cleric paladin want-to-be NPC or no one at all.

When time or money ran short, it was the other two planned possible romances for the female PC that got cut.

I am a feminist for many reasons.  One of those reasons is that by the time I'm old, I want to see male and female choices cut equally when things must be cut.  I don't want women taking the bigger cut, and right now, we still are taking the bigger cut.  And things get better not by saying "Oh, well, count your blessings," but by saying, "Things are not equal, and we as human beings can change and do better."  Change in small things as well as big things.


Appendix: For a thoughtful and thorough take on women in games and gaming, you should be watching  Anita Sarkeesian's videos.

Unfinished Quests: Prophecy of the Shadow

The first RPG I remember playing was Prophecy of the Shadow.  I spent many hours on this game, exploring forests, fighting monsters, selling treasure for better weaponry, and expanding my vocabulary. 

I admit it: I did feed the felon a bottle of white zinfandel.

The plot line is very standard: you are a mysterious orphan being raised by the local healer.  The world has been falling into disrepair for years now: magic disappearing, the rightful princess disappearing, an unscrupulous regent dealing unscrupulously, prophecies of doom floating around for those in the know, non-humans muscling in on previously human turf, etc, etc,  but everything for you is very ordinary until your master is assassinated and you are left to find your destiny on your own. 

I almost fulfilled my destiny...but I could never find how to finish the game.  Years later, desultory googling about a walkthrough in the hopes of finding out what the ending was supposed to be turned up nothing.  But a few weeks ago I tried again, and found not only a synopsis by another blogger who is blogging through old computer games, but links to DosBox versions of PoS!  Turing bless the internet, and Turing bless DosBox!

I am now on a quest to finish Prophecy of the Shadow and fulfill my destiny!  And I am having a lot of fun playing through this game again.  As in any good RPG, sometimes it takes you a few tries to hack through the creeping ooze:

At least PoS doesn't have mustard jellies (the Baldur's Gate version of ooze on steroids).   On the other hand, there are the PoS equivalent of Beholders, which throw fireballs at you.  I'm working on my strategy with ranged weapons, but honestly the only way I've taken a PoS Beholder down yet is to charge straight in with a great sword and keep reloading until this works.  

I'd forgotten some of the extra touches that make PoS so much fun:

Excuse me, do you sell shrubberies?

I did remember exploiting the poor fight coding: enemies come toward you in a straight line, and if they encounter an obstacle, they will stand and wait on the other side of the obstacle until you move.  I love standing safely on the other side of a bush and slingshotting a bandit! 

We'll see if this time I can finish the game.  Doing so will tie off a frustrating loose end from my early gaming days.